Home Sweet Home?? Vacation is not officially over for a couple more days but I am home. None too happy about it either. The past week has by far been the best week of my life. I stood in the freakin' Atlantic Ocean! Iowa is soooo lame compared to that. It's not just that either. Ten years ago I visited South Dakota and bawled like a baby when it was time to come back. I know it's not good to knock your hometown or your roots but geesh, everywhere but here has something going for it. We honestly have practically nothing. We have small town values, family living, etc. Those are good but would it be too much to get another restaurant or two? Some kind of attraction that would make people want to come visit us?? It's depressing and I'd move in a New York minute if I could. My job basically allows me to work anywhere I can find a phone jack, an ISP and an electical outlet but I stay here because my son is the most important thing in my life and he is happy here. I can't imagine that he will stay forever but while he's young, he needs his family and they are here. I couldn't take him away from his dad, grandma, aunt, etc. I have great friends here too so I'll readjust, settle back into Iowa life and remember fondly what it felt like to squish sand between my toes while waves crashed at my feet.
I have TONS of photos to post somewhere but for now I just need to go to bed.
Got to North Carolina early Monday morning. I fell in love with the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee so several stops were made there. All the stopping got us a little off our itinerary but it was worth it. North Carolina is very pretty but oh man, is it ever hot! The air is so heavy it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest. This is a good thing because I am the first to bitch about humid days in Iowa. Those will seem like nothing compared to this.
The people here are very friendly but it sounds like listening to a foreign language. I have to really concentrate to get thru the southern accent. Some are worse than others. Crystal says that some people have a certain slang in addition to the drawl.
They are certainly big on "BBQ" around here. Every half mile is a BBQ place. Their idea of BBQ is to throw cole slaw on top of the sandwich like I would throw a slice of cheese on. I haven't tried it and probably won't because it seems so wrong : )
Going to Greenville today to Walmart. It is soooo cool. Crystal lives in the sticks and the two towns near her aren't even big enough to register on a map but 15 miles away in Greenville you can find anything you need. We went there last night to Red Lobster and had the most awesome food. Wish I had more money to eat at all the places I saw. Greenville isn't as big as Des Moines but it has all of the same stuff.
The car ran great, even thru the mountains. I couldn't beleive the trip down out of the mountains. You go up gradually starting in Kentucky. I think my ears popped five times going up and it was so gradual, you could barely tell you were going up. The trip down is far from gradual. Driving along and suddenly you see this sign that says "Runaway Truck Ramp" with an arrow directing to this lane then you have a roller coaster ride from hell. They have lights that hang over the road to tell truckers if they are going too fast to negotiate the corners. I guess the runaway truck ramps have a sand pit at the end of them so if a truck loses control, they hit that ramp then the sand and sink to a stop. Cool but scary to think about.
I said I wasn't spending much time on the computer so I'm gonna quit even though I want to go on and on. This has been the best trip of my life and I have so much to share.
